Pet dog loses leg in cruel binding after suspected abduction

TEARS of relief turned to tears of horror when Junette Turner looked at the exposed bone on her dog's left hind leg.

Jill, a four-year-old dingo cross, went missing on the day of the funeral for Junette's partner of 40 years, Don.

The dog mysteriously turned up 15 days later, missing her left hind foot and with the bone sticking out.

Ms Turner said she had been sick with worry, because the dog was a powerful connection to her late partner.

"She was a part of Don," Ms Turner said.

"I promised to look after Jill and I can only assume she must have followed me to the funeral.

"I started to get really, really upset."

After searching endlessly for the dog, and putting a call out to the radio station, Jill returned 15 days later with heavy gauge cage wire tied around her leg, seemingly twisted on with a pair of pliers.

Jill, the dingo cross, was badly mutilated in a suspected abduction, returning to the owners house in Casino missing her left foot. Marc Stapelberg

"She hopped over and I started telling her how much I loved her and cuddled her," Ms Turner said.

"And then I saw the most terrible sight.

"They must have held her down.

"They have absolutely no conscience."

After assessing the dog's severe injuries, Northern Rivers Vet Service veterinarian Dr Liz Brown said it appeared Jill had been tied up using the wire.

"I can only assume the heavy cage wire around the wound destroyed the blood flow, the foot has rotted and eventually fallen off," she said.

"I have no idea how (else) you get that sort of injury.

"Jill is very stoic and I am amazed that she is as well as she is, considering the wound."

Dr Brown said the dog had surgery yesterday to have the leg amputated properly.

"The owner was happy to have her dog back, but she was visibly distressed" Dr Brown said.